Last night I headed out for a very easy "Recovery Run"! I heard different views on how much time you should take off after a race to properly recover. I have some goals set for my monthly mileage that I'm a little behind on and wanted to get something in. So I headed out for a 7 mile run but took it very easy. I have a nice hill right outside my door that starts my run off and last night I took it easy going up the hill, I ran the first third of the hill and then walked the rest.
The rest of the run was a combination of an easy 10 - 10 1/2 min/mile pace and brisk walking. It was a nice evening and I was definately feeling it in my legs so I just enjoyed myself and took it really easy. I finished the 7 miles in about 1:20 which gave me an average pace over 11 min/mile which is fine by me. The important thing was to get out there and get the legs moving again and log some more miles for the month. Mission accomplished.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
PF Changs Rock n' Roll Half Marathon
I figure I better update my progress here. Sunday I ran in the PF Changs Rock n' Roll Half-Marathon. I usually run the full and infact I've never done just a half ever but I felt like I couldn't go out there and do the full in a time that I would be happy with so I went with the half.
I estimated a time around 2 hours and so I got put into corral 6. I knew a couple people that were in corral 5 so I jumped corrals to try and find them. I never ended up finding them but decided to stay in that corral anyway. The first thing that I noticed about the half was how many people there were. My gosh, it was crowded. When you run the fulls there is 6000-8000 people and it spaces out pretty quickly. The half, however, was crowded the whole way.
My goal was to keep to 9 min/mile pace or slightly faster. Shortly after the start I noticed the pacer holding the 1:52 sign. I knew that if I kept with them I would make my goal so I fell into a good pace keeping the 1:52 pacer in sight. My first 5 mile splits were 8:22, 8:27, 8:24, 8:18 and 8:22. I found my family just before the 6 mile mark and pulled over to say hi and shed my outer layer. I figured a little family attention is always good, it costs you 30 seconds but they're out there cheering for you and it's the least you could do right? So my split on mile 6 was like 9:40 (maybe I took longer than 30 seconds)! Mile 7 and 8 I was right back in the 8:20's. Between mile 9 and 10 we say our first mild incline. Nothing too major but enough to see my spilts go up to 8:53 and 8:51 respectively. On mile 11 I produced a 9:00 split but the finish line was just a couple miles away and I knew I had enough to finish strong. I picked up my pace a little and had an 8:30 and 8:40 on mile 12 and 13.
My chip time was 1:54:02 which gave me a pace of 8:40/mile. Another interesting stat that I would love to hear some comments on was my average and max heartrate. For the run I had an average heartrate of 181 and a max of 194. Now I know that I've always ran with a higher heartrate then most people that I've asked but this one seems even higher than normal for me. I mean yes I want to bring that down and I know it will come down with some weight loss and more training. But I'm amazed that I can keep that heartrate up there for nearly 2 hours. Anyway, I'm happy that I chose to do the half-marathon and I'm happy with my time.
I estimated a time around 2 hours and so I got put into corral 6. I knew a couple people that were in corral 5 so I jumped corrals to try and find them. I never ended up finding them but decided to stay in that corral anyway. The first thing that I noticed about the half was how many people there were. My gosh, it was crowded. When you run the fulls there is 6000-8000 people and it spaces out pretty quickly. The half, however, was crowded the whole way.
My goal was to keep to 9 min/mile pace or slightly faster. Shortly after the start I noticed the pacer holding the 1:52 sign. I knew that if I kept with them I would make my goal so I fell into a good pace keeping the 1:52 pacer in sight. My first 5 mile splits were 8:22, 8:27, 8:24, 8:18 and 8:22. I found my family just before the 6 mile mark and pulled over to say hi and shed my outer layer. I figured a little family attention is always good, it costs you 30 seconds but they're out there cheering for you and it's the least you could do right? So my split on mile 6 was like 9:40 (maybe I took longer than 30 seconds)! Mile 7 and 8 I was right back in the 8:20's. Between mile 9 and 10 we say our first mild incline. Nothing too major but enough to see my spilts go up to 8:53 and 8:51 respectively. On mile 11 I produced a 9:00 split but the finish line was just a couple miles away and I knew I had enough to finish strong. I picked up my pace a little and had an 8:30 and 8:40 on mile 12 and 13.
My chip time was 1:54:02 which gave me a pace of 8:40/mile. Another interesting stat that I would love to hear some comments on was my average and max heartrate. For the run I had an average heartrate of 181 and a max of 194. Now I know that I've always ran with a higher heartrate then most people that I've asked but this one seems even higher than normal for me. I mean yes I want to bring that down and I know it will come down with some weight loss and more training. But I'm amazed that I can keep that heartrate up there for nearly 2 hours. Anyway, I'm happy that I chose to do the half-marathon and I'm happy with my time.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Broke out the bike and dusted it off!
Today was the day I had planned to break out the bike and head out for my first ride since my last triathlon back in June of 2008. So how do I break it in? I go for a 50 miler! I haven't done a 50 miler since I was in Jr. High and our Pathfinders (think boy scouts done through a church group) would do these Bike-A-Thons where we would get sponsors and then ride 50 miles to raise money for our group so we could go on campouts.
We have a really good bike path that runs from Corona where I live all the way to the beach around Huntington (about 60 miles one way). If I park down where the bike path starts then there is no street lights to stop for or vehicle traffic, just a straight shot with a couple bridges to cross over the riverbed but that's it. Anyway, my plan today was to do about 50 miles so I headed out from my house which gave me about 11 miles of hills before I reached the flat bike trail. I wastn't sure that I was going to takle the hills on the back end of my ride or call my wife to come pick me up at the bike trail.
Before I go any further about my ride I need to note that not only did I have to dust off my bike but I also had some rust when it came to preparing for my ride and a couple mistakes on the ride itself. First of all, I was all ready to head out the door when I noticed that my Garmin was almost out of battery. Do I take off without it or wait an hour or so for it to charge up? I wait! Instead of taking off by 10am I end up getting out the door closer to noon.
The first half of my ride went well, but it was here where I encountered my 2nd mistake and this one was a mental mistake. I had convinced myself the whole time I was heading out on my out and back course that I was heading into a slight headwind. I was averaging about 18mph and I just figured that if there wasn't a headwind I would be doing closer to 20mph. When I reached the turn-around point about 29 miles into my ride I noticed that I now was heading back into a pretty steady headwind. On the flat trail I was averaging about 15mph and getting pretty frustraded with myself.
My third mistake came after I called my wife at the turn-around. I stopped my Garmin and no I didn't have it set for Auto-stop/start. I forgot to start it back up when I started up again and didn't notice it for about 5-6 miles. So now add the frustration that I'm not going to get an accurate measurement of this ride.
My legs started aching about 40 miles into the ride and was wondering if my calf was going to cramp up on me. My butt was starting to numb up and I was seeing my speed drop down into the 12-13mph range. I finish the ride and my wife was there waiting for me and my numbers looked like this. 47 miles in about 3 hours which gave me an average of about 15.5mph. My HR averaged 157 bpm.
I guess you could say that my last mistake was heading out for a 50 mile ride after 6 months with my bike parked in the garage. On the other had, I made it and my time was only about 20-25 minutes more than I was hoping I would do. My legs feel fine, my butt might be sore for another day but all in all I'm grateful that I got my first ride back out of the way.
We have a really good bike path that runs from Corona where I live all the way to the beach around Huntington (about 60 miles one way). If I park down where the bike path starts then there is no street lights to stop for or vehicle traffic, just a straight shot with a couple bridges to cross over the riverbed but that's it. Anyway, my plan today was to do about 50 miles so I headed out from my house which gave me about 11 miles of hills before I reached the flat bike trail. I wastn't sure that I was going to takle the hills on the back end of my ride or call my wife to come pick me up at the bike trail.
Before I go any further about my ride I need to note that not only did I have to dust off my bike but I also had some rust when it came to preparing for my ride and a couple mistakes on the ride itself. First of all, I was all ready to head out the door when I noticed that my Garmin was almost out of battery. Do I take off without it or wait an hour or so for it to charge up? I wait! Instead of taking off by 10am I end up getting out the door closer to noon.
The first half of my ride went well, but it was here where I encountered my 2nd mistake and this one was a mental mistake. I had convinced myself the whole time I was heading out on my out and back course that I was heading into a slight headwind. I was averaging about 18mph and I just figured that if there wasn't a headwind I would be doing closer to 20mph. When I reached the turn-around point about 29 miles into my ride I noticed that I now was heading back into a pretty steady headwind. On the flat trail I was averaging about 15mph and getting pretty frustraded with myself.
My third mistake came after I called my wife at the turn-around. I stopped my Garmin and no I didn't have it set for Auto-stop/start. I forgot to start it back up when I started up again and didn't notice it for about 5-6 miles. So now add the frustration that I'm not going to get an accurate measurement of this ride.
My legs started aching about 40 miles into the ride and was wondering if my calf was going to cramp up on me. My butt was starting to numb up and I was seeing my speed drop down into the 12-13mph range. I finish the ride and my wife was there waiting for me and my numbers looked like this. 47 miles in about 3 hours which gave me an average of about 15.5mph. My HR averaged 157 bpm.
I guess you could say that my last mistake was heading out for a 50 mile ride after 6 months with my bike parked in the garage. On the other had, I made it and my time was only about 20-25 minutes more than I was hoping I would do. My legs feel fine, my butt might be sore for another day but all in all I'm grateful that I got my first ride back out of the way.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Day Three
This is the third day in a row that I got myself out the door for a run. I really didn't feel like doing it today, but we've all been through that before. For the most part my pace was about the same as yesterday. I did 6.52 miles today in 1:00:50, which gives me a 9:20/mile pace. I have just under 20 miles for the last three days and I'm well on my way for my goal of 100 miles in January.
I'm also trying to decide whether to run in the PF Changs Rock n' Roll Marathon or Half Marathon coming up in 2 weeks in Phoenix, AZ. I've run the last two years and would hate to miss a year when I could have a nice consecutive streak going but I just don't feel ready to do the full at this point. I don't know but I need to decide here pretty soon. If I run the PF Changs or not I still would like to get in the LA Marathon or the San Diego Rock n' Roll in May.
I need to hit the triathlon calenders online and find maybe some shorter distance ones to do late spring.
I'm also trying to decide whether to run in the PF Changs Rock n' Roll Marathon or Half Marathon coming up in 2 weeks in Phoenix, AZ. I've run the last two years and would hate to miss a year when I could have a nice consecutive streak going but I just don't feel ready to do the full at this point. I don't know but I need to decide here pretty soon. If I run the PF Changs or not I still would like to get in the LA Marathon or the San Diego Rock n' Roll in May.
I need to hit the triathlon calenders online and find maybe some shorter distance ones to do late spring.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Good day today!
This morning I woke up and headed out to the gym to get some laps in. I knew it was going to be difficult having not swam since June 6 months ago. Also my back has been hurting when I wake up in the mornings and I definately felt it in the pool this morning. Having said all that, I got 1500m done in 43:48. Not too happy with the time but I know it will improve.
This evening I took off on another run and did 6.5 miles in 1:00:40, took about 4 minutes off of yesterdays run time. I just felt a lot better out there tonight so I pushed the pace a little faster. Another interesting note was that my average HR was 163 tonight at the faster pace where it was 166 yesterday.
So two pretty good days to start off the New Year!! Tomorrow I plan to do a longer run.
This evening I took off on another run and did 6.5 miles in 1:00:40, took about 4 minutes off of yesterdays run time. I just felt a lot better out there tonight so I pushed the pace a little faster. Another interesting note was that my average HR was 163 tonight at the faster pace where it was 166 yesterday.
So two pretty good days to start off the New Year!! Tomorrow I plan to do a longer run.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
New Year and New Motivation
January 1, 2009 - The start of a new year and I hope the start of more consistant workouts. Today didn't start off too good. I had a lot of family over and I just found it hard to do anything constructive at all. Then I got into watching a few football games including the Rose Bowl with USC in which they won!!
Finally in the evening I laced up the running shoes and heading out for an easy run. Completed 6.35 miles in about 1:04:00. Tomorrow I plan on hitting the pool for some laps.
Finally in the evening I laced up the running shoes and heading out for an easy run. Completed 6.35 miles in about 1:04:00. Tomorrow I plan on hitting the pool for some laps.
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